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Dr. Marcus Plescia, ASTHO’s Chief Medical Officer, says health departments are working to create effective vaccine messaging for this fall; Maggie Davis, ASTHO's Director of State Health Policy, shares policies aimed at reducing barriers to...
Dr. Marcus Plescia, ASTHO’s Chief Medical Officer, says health departments are working to create effective vaccine messaging for this fall; Maggie Davis, ASTHO's Director of State Health Policy, shares policies aimed at reducing barriers to vaccines; and a new ASTHO webinar explains how to manage data in the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System.
ASTHO Webpage: Policymakers Boosting Public Health Readiness for Respiratory Illness Season
ASTHO Webinar: It’s a Weighty Matter: Exploring PRAMS Weights
ROBERT JOHNSON:
This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Monday, September 18, 2023. I'm Robert Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
MARCUS PLESCIA:
You know, we need to work on messaging around the importance of getting these vaccines. And when we find messaging that seems to be effective and works, we need to share that.
JOHNSON:
ASTHO Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Marcus Plescia, on one of the biggest challenges facing ASTHO members as they work to encourage people to protect themselves against COVID-19, the flu, and RSV.
PLESCIA:
By far, what everybody says is, you know, they just don't know how to communicate about some of these things. They don't know what the right messages are. And what they want is messages that are geared to the general public. And they want messages that have been tested.
JOHNSON:
Plescia says help is on the way.
PLESCIA:
We've asked CDC to really look at how they can help us with communications. This is what we're hearing from state health officials. And actually, we've convened sort of the whole public health community to talk about what do we need to be effective in this upcoming fall respiratory season.
JOHNSON:
He adds the companies that make the vaccines also have a role in building public interest and improving uptake.
PLESCIA:
They know how to message about these things. They you know, they know how to market their products. And maybe we can get some ideas from them as well. And so hopefully in the next few weeks, we can start sharing out some of that.
JOHNSON:
The availability of three formulas to protect against serious respiratory infections this fall and winter has left public health in a better position than years past. ASTHO's Maggie Davis says agencies also are leveraging policy to improve patient access and increase vaccination rates.
MAGGIE DAVIS:
The state policies are very similar to what we saw for supporting uptake of flu vaccine in previous years prior to the pandemic. So, these are things such as reducing barriers to care, so, making it easier to get the vaccine, having more providers be able to provide it. In addition to pharmacists, we're seeing some states allow your optometrist to give you a COVID and a flu shot, or your podiatrist, or some other care provider.
JOHNSON:
Davis says it helps that the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recently added the RSV treatment to the Vaccines for Children program.
DAVIS:
By adding it to the Vaccines for Children program, it allows states to get that product at a lower cost and for free. So, it really helps increase the supply of the product, so that it can get out into the community and there isn't a cost barrier for people trying to find this product to prevent RSV, which is a really, really dangerous disease for some small children.
JOHNSON:
Davis adds the newly approved COVID-19 vaccine will be covered by insurance, thanks to a fast-tracked provision approved by Congress.
DAVIS:
Traditionally, though, when you get a new vaccine recommended by ACIP, it takes about a year for the vaccine to be covered. But fortunately, Congress added a provision in the Cares Act that makes that process faster for the COVID-19 vaccine. So, under this federal law, private insurers, Medicare, and Medicaid will be covering this vaccine without cost-sharing this season.
JOHNSON:
Davis has written a new ASTHO blog article about all of this and more. You can read it using the link in the show notes.
Also today, a new ASTHO webinar will help you learn how to manage data in the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System. Experts will discuss how prams weights are constructed and how to properly subset data for weighted analysis. The event is on Thursday, October 5 at 2 p.m. Eastern time. Sign up using the link in the show notes.
Finally this morning, we'd also like to remind you to follow this newscast on your podcast player and ASTHO on social media. We're on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with the latest ASTHO news and information. I'm Robert Johnson. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.
